


Jughead Jones Is Stupid

by kzepplin (Sailorzeplin)



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Jughead Jones Stupidity Rights, M/M, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24482785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sailorzeplin/pseuds/kzepplin
Summary: I said what I said
Relationships: Jughead Jones/Bret Weston Wallis
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27





	Jughead Jones Is Stupid

Looking back on it, Jughead supposed it was for the best, his and Betty’s breakup. While it had been angry and tense for them for a while, he had gotten over it surprisingly quickly, and now here they were, the day he was supposed to move into his new residence at Stonewall Prep, in a corner booth at Pop’s. Betty was stealing fries off of his plate, something she never did while they were dating, talking animatedly about the junior FBI program she was joining with Kevin. She reached for a fry again and he looked pleadingly at her, moving his plate out of her grasp, but she leaned forward and snatched two, instead of one.   
“C’mon Jug, sharing isn’t going to kill you, is it? Besides, you’ve barely even touched the rest of your food.”  
He looked down at his plate and realized she was right, burger untouched, milkshake pushed aside, glass still frosty and undisturbed. The only evidence that showed someone had actually touched the plate were the missing fries, and those were Betty’s doing.  
“Sorry, I guess I’m just nervous about Stonewall. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid of a bunch of silver-spoon preppies but...I don’t know. I guess I’m just going to miss this.”  
“Awh, Jug...we’ll make sure to cry a lot when you leave, if that’ll make you feel better.” Her face betrayed her fake sympathy, eyes sparking with laughter, and he shoved her with his shoulder.   
“I take it back, Cooper, I’ll miss everyone but you.”  
She gasped at that, shoving him back, and they continued with their pseudo-wrestling match until the other patrons began to glare, settling back into the seat. Betty picked up her story about their brother’s FBI program, and he let his mind wander again to Stonewall Prep.   
~~~  
Betty ended up coming with him to unpack his stuff along with his dad and Jellybean. However, his dad and J.B soon left to go find some food, leaving him and Betty alone in the dorm. It was still slightly awkward between them, the reasons for their breakup not discussed aside from “things not feeling right” and, despite the friendly lunch they had yesterday, Jughead still felt weird around her, chest tying itself in knots. Finally, he was the first to break the silence, clearing his throat.   
“Well, this whole place is very A Secret History huh?”  
She smiled a little at that, just slightly.   
“Veronica’s reading that book, I think.”   
And silence swallowed them again, before they both spoke up at the same time.   
“Betty-“  
“Jug-“  
Jughead raised his hands, surrendering quickly.   
“You go first.”  
“Look, Jug, before I go, I wanted to say I’m sorry. I don’t want things to be weird between us but my mom, and you dad, and our brother. It just felt so weird, and I didn’t want a repeat of Polly and Jason,” she shivered, nose wrinkling in disgust, “but I didn’t want to make things awkward, and I do still hope you come down to visit for Halloween in a few weeks.”  
Silence dragged on for a few seconds more, and just as she was about to speak again, Jughead opened his mouth.   
“Thank god we can finally address that, Betty, I really didn’t want to become a Blossom family knockoff, I was hoping you were going to be the one to mention it first. And of course I’ll come down for Halloween, if it’ll really mean that much to you.”   
With that a sly, teasing smile made its way onto Jughead’s face, and Betty immediately began to deny even mentioning Halloween, so that when FP and Jellybean walked back in they were laughing and working together to unpack Jughead’s bags, easy and amicable as two lifelong friends.   
~~  
His first real salon with Mr. Chipping and his classmates went surprisingly well, and despite the strongly negative feelings he had gotten from their first meeting, the other teens in his class seemed to actually like him, even the guy, Bret, who he had thought was surely going to be an enemy to him while he was there. It was even more surprising when, as he headed to undoubtedly sit alone in the café, Bret jogged up beside him, and invited him to sit with the rest of his group.   
“Oh. Uh. Sure, yeah, thanks Bret.”  
Sitting with the group hadn’t been as strange as he had thought it would be, easily joining the heated debate that had already started between Johnathan, Joan and Donna over one of the assigned readings in class that day, Great Gatsby. While they had all already read it before, Mr. Chipping had asked them to pay attention to some of the “nuances and subtexts” present in the story, and come prepared to discuss it next class. Well, apparently it looked like they were prepared to argue even before that, quick wits on display as he gauged the conversation before officially jumping in.   
“Obviously Great Gatsby is about the American Dream, Johnathan, spice it up a bit please, you’ll bore me to death.” Joan was leaning on the boy, feigning yawns as she spoke, which drew a chuckle out of Donna, before she jumped in as well.   
“While Johnathan’s analysis was surface level, really so is yours Joan, I mean seriously? Bringing up the ‘Nick is gay’ argument is just as, if not more tired.”  
“Oh come on Donna I was simply-“   
But Jughead cut Joan off, finally choosing to enter the conversation.   
“Wait, hold on, Nick isn’t gay. He’s in love with Jordan, remember?”  
“God, Forsythe, can you really be that dense?” This time it was Bret who spoke up, eyebrow quirked and eyes glinting with amusement “Of course he’s gay, why do you think he’s so fascinated with Gatsby?”  
“There’s no way he’s gay, I’ve read this book like, what, four times? I never picked up on it.”  
“Jesus Forsythe, not really much of a sense for those things then, I guess. Everyone knows Nick’s gay, why do you think he’s a favorite character among gay literary analysists?”  
“Well, I mean, I like Nick, he’s one of my favorite characters in literature ever, and I’m not gay.”  
This pulled a laugh out of the table, and Jughead noticed Bret looking at him peculiarly for a moment, but within a flash the strange look in his eye was gone, replaced instead with amusement, which made Jughead feel a little defensive.   
“Anyways, how do you know so much about what gay people think Bret, aren’t you dating Donna, neither of you would know.” Again a laugh sounded around the table.   
“Wow, you really don’t have a sense for these types of things. Me and Donna are both gay, Forsythe. My God, you’re worse off than I thought.”  
With that however, the conversation shifted again, before Jughead could ask what exactly Bret meant by that, and he chose to ignore it, pushing the comment, as well as all thoughts of Bret being gay, to the back of his mind, happily delving into the new topic about Vonnegut instead.   
~~  
That night Jughead found himself having a hard time sleeping, especially after walking into his room and finding Bret there already, sprawled on his twin bed in boxers and a tshirt, furiously scribbling away at an assignment. He had forgotten he was his roommate, and for some reason seeing him made Jughead feel...he didn’t really know. Nervous? Confused? Whatever it was, it was currently keeping him up, headphones plugged in as he stared at the ceiling and attempted to ignore the soft, almost snoring breaths coming from a now-asleep Bret. It took about an hour before Jughead gave up on sleep, cracking open one of his books, hoping to get in some late-night reading. Of course, it happened to be Great Gastby, the newest addition to his stack of assigned reading. Jughead sighed, frustrated, before deciding to just give it another read. Maybe he’d be able to figure out a way to prove Bret and Donna wrong about their theory, and if not, at least he’d have a head start on the homework.  
~~  
Betty came down to visit that weekend, at Jughead’s request. While he was settling into Stonewall Prep okay, the strange creaks of floorboards and dark, unknown corners weren’t as inviting as the open and warm halls of Riverdale High, and he was feeling surprisingly homesick. When she arrived, he was surprised to be met with not only her, but Veronica and Archie as well.   
“Betty, I thought it was just going to be you coming up here?”  
“Well, it was, but I decided to bring Archie and Veronica along...I hope that’s alright?”  
“Of course he’s alright with us being here, especially because I smuggled some classic Pop’s food all the way over here for him. Who knows what types of gruel our poor academic here has had to deal with.”  
Jughead smiled, Veronica always had a way of making him feel more relaxed, her overbearing presence making it easy to forget that he wasn’t at home, sitting around her in Le Bonne Nuit, plotting or scheming in a way that was so effortlessly her. Archie clapped him on the back, before making a beeline for one of the burgers, and he quickly followed suit, unable to resist the pull of a good meal.  
~~  
They had been talking for a good hour, when Archie got a text from Munroe, asking him to go back to the Center. Something about a pipe burst, and with a sheepish look and some profuse apologies Archie excused himself, already on the phone with Munroe, “Hey, babe, calm down, I’m on my way back right now…” before his worried voice faded out of earshot.  
Betty and Veronica were lounging on the floor, and Jughead was laying on the bottom bunk of his bed, head hanging off the edge. Veronica was in the middle of the story of how she met her secret half-sister, Hermosa, when Bret came barging into the room with Donna.  
“Jones, serious responses only, me and Donna wanted to know which one of us is…” his voice trailed off as he noticed the other two people in the room, coloring a slight pink, before straightening his jacket and introducing himself, only slightly ruffled by his less-than-composed entrance. Donna, on the other hand, seemed entirely unbothered, cooly introducing herself to Betty and Veronica, before suggesting they “get to know each other better” which simultaneously intrigued and terrified Jughead.  
~~  
Turns out, what Donna had meant was a game of Truth or Dare, which Veronica insisted have a drinking game twist, stating that approaching the game of Truth or Dare sober was never the right way to do it, and no one wanted to argue, instead allowing her to produce a flask, and organize themselves in a circle on the floor. It was Donna’s turn to ask a question, all of them already a little tipsy after three rounds of question asking, the majority of them choosing truths so far, when she spoke and asked “Jones, truth or dare?” and, deciding he wanted to spice it up a bit, Jughead answered dare. She let her gaze wander around the room, studying all the possibilities, before her eyes fell on Bret, who had been the quietest of the night, and the most sober.   
“Okay Jones, because I love you and you are my friend, I’ll let you choose between these two dares, as is only fair: Either give yourself a new haircut with these,” she brandished a pair of safety scissors she swiped from atop a nearby desk, bright plastic and dull blade, sure to make him look ridiculous, “or, you can go give our lovely friend Bret over there a quick kiss.” Bret looked up at that, from where he had been pulling at a fraying thread on one of the pillows, sputtering incredulously and turning a bright red. Donna simply laughed, and waved her pair of scissors around some more.  
“Your choice Jones, but choose wisely.”  
Jughead sat, eyes darting back and forth between Donna and Bret, before seemingly making up his mind. Taking another quick drink from their flask, Jughead leaned in closer to Bret.  
“Hey,” he whispered, “let’s make this quick yeah? Less painful for both of us.” And then he was kissing Bret, and they both tasted like cheap whiskey, and Bret had chapped lips, and the angle was slightly awkward, and and and...and Jughead realised he was kind of liking it. What had meant to be a quick, one second peck had been going on for far too long, and he quickly pulled back, almost as if he had been branded. Quickly pulling back to his original seat, sparing a quick glance at Bret, who was currently blushing a bright, burning red. Donna hollered a bit, her clumsy wolf whistle from earlier still ringing in Jughead’s ears, as the turn moved on to Betty.  
~~  
Later that night, after Betty and Veronica had left, promises to visit hanging in the air, and Donna having been invited down for their Halloween festivities, it was just Jughead and Bret in their room. The same nervous energy that had been created between them after their kiss was still lingering as they cleaned the room, preparing for bed. While Bret had been able to recover quicker than Jughead had, jumping into the game with a laugh, taking his turn when it came around, as soon as everyone left he fell quiet, neither of them talking. Jughead hadn’t recovered as quick as Bret, and even now he was still thinking about the kiss, about Bret lounging in his bed, about Bret when he was arguing in a salon. He had no idea what this meant, because hadn’t he dated Betty? There was no way he could be….but he really had enjoyed that kiss. Fuck. He didn’t know. And normally, he would ask someone who had experience with the problems he was experiencing, but that was the problem, wasn’t it? The closest person who he would presume had experience with this was Bret, and he wasn’t going to call up Kevin. God. It wasn’t until Bret cleared his throat nervously that Jughead realized he had been staring, and he quickly looked away, feeling ashamed.   
“Look, Forsythe, Donna was just messing around with us earlier, it’s better to not act all freaked about it, she’ll just use that to mess with you even more. I get that...I understand that it made you uncomfortable, and if you want me to leave, or…”  
He trailed off, Jughead having stepped closer to him, looking him in the eye.  
“Look, don’t tell Donna this, but I actually...didn’t hate it. Not that I’m...well at least I don't think so. But, the whole experience wasn’t that bad.”  
Bret raised an eyebrow, staring at him.   
“Okay. Okay maybe I am, y’know. But do you think I could...kiss you again? Just to be sure?”  
Bret rolled his eyes at that, the hopeful look on Jughead’s face too much for him to resist though, and he took the step to close the distance between them, kissing him again. While this kiss was definitely sweeter than the last, Jughead still felt the same heat rise to his face. It wasn’t long before Bret pulled away.   
“So? How are you feeling now?” And Jughead wanted to say something cute, something soft or sweet, but instead he smiled.  
“Y’know, I think I might just understand why Nick’s my favorite Great Gatsby character after all.”  
Bret pushed him away, laughing, but not before sneaking a quick kiss first.   
~~  
Donna didn’t say anything to them the next day, but her smug look was all it took for Bret and Jughead to know that she had a pretty good idea of what had gone down after she left, and Jughead made a mental note to thank her later.

**Author's Note:**

> stay tuned i guess for the sequel: Betty Cooper Is Stupid


End file.
